Cooperative Networking Strategy of UAV Cluster for Large-Scale WSNs

To solve the shortcomings of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in data collection in a wide range, long distance, and other complex environments, such as high networking cost, short network life cycle, and difficult data collection, a data collection strategy based on the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) cluster collaborative networking is proposed. First, the node structure and deployment application of WSNs are analyzed, and the architecture of UAV collaborative data collection is designed. Second, the related models of communication energy consumption between WSNs’ network and UAV cluster, UAV cluster task allocation, and path planning are established successively. Then, a simple but efficient task planning strategy considering UAV forward and return distances is proposed. Finally, for the problem of model solving, the solution strategy of the heuristic swarm intelligence algorithm is proposed. The simulation results verify that the strategy reduces the overall network energy consumption by 42.16% and the total range of UAV by 9.7% and realizes the relative minimization of WSNs energy consumption and UAV flight cost on the premise of ensuring the full coverage of WSNs’ nodes.